How accurate are you?

Lourdesong wrote: »

I weigh everything except individual prepackaged items and eggs. Weighing is easy and fast and a habit, taring my scale to weigh a handful of spinach is easier and faster for me than the time it takes for me to even consider just eyeballing it.

I have had one egg that is the USDA-given 70 calories per large egg. Most are 75+. Small enough that it doesn't make much difference overall, but I like to know.

But what I would put down as the 3-cups-20-calorie serving of raw spinach has never been accurate. I have always under-eyeballed.

I weigh everything, included packed things (most of them tend to say things like "20gr" and then they're 25gr), except my Kit Kats... I love them more than that lol

I am very accurate, but I tend to measure by volume rather than weight. I eat a lot of veggies but try to limit my fruit. It's pretty clear to me what the sizes are for different fruits, so I don't feel the need to weight them every time. A lot of the fruits that I eat frequently (pom arils, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries) make more sense measured by volume than weight.

I never eat bananas...maybe that's the key issue.

It's possible to be fairly precise about tracking without driving yourself insane.

lgutches wrote: »

OP: I would love to know if these answers are representative of the MFP community or if the topic was of interest mostly to those who see weighing foods as priority. I do not mean any disrespect at all to those of you who have responded in the affirmative - and perhaps I am wrong - but my guess is that those who have responded to this post tend to be those who value weighing their food. The reason I bring this up is simply to take a little pressure of the OP, especially since she mentions that she doesn't weigh everything. One might get the impression that you're "doing it wrong" if you don't weigh your food, which - of course - isn't true. All that said, well done to all - we're all working hard, just doing it in different ways!

This is a good answer! I rarely weigh and occasionally measure, but have had success. Maybe it could have been faster, but it's painful for me to count calories anyway so I don't think it would be sustainable FOR ME. For others, it probably is. I underestimate a little on my burns, too, since they always seem high. I figure it all comes out in the wash, and that seems to be true because I have lost the weight.

Weigh everything, including gum and spices.

I weigh everything unless it is prepacked in individual servings by the manufacturer.

I think it is important to weight everything doesn't matter starchy or not, a calorie is calorie doesn't matter where it comes from.

I weigh protein and carbs, fruit if it's large. If I've had something before and have a sense of it, I use previous information. I look stuff up if I'm unfamiliar, read labels, scan bar codes on packaged goods.

To the person who questioned the motivation of those posting here: Of course the people that respond to this post are more likely weighing and measuring. Who else would have posted here? If you want to find out who isn't doing this post a topic about who doesn't weigh and measure.

I forgot to mention before that the food scale is more than just for calorie counting.

Since i got a food scale, my homemade bread has been exactly the same every single time i bake it. It's how i always did it in food service yet i never bothered to get a scale at home. There's a reason why big kitchens use scales. Every time i made it before i had to take notes on how tight i packed each ingredient into the cups and even then my notes were subjective. How tight is tightly packed or how loose is loosely packed. Then there's measuring spoons and if they are packed, level, rounded etc.

Being able to weigh the ingredients makes it easier to experiment with recipes too !!! Some things really do need to be adjusted on a percentage and the scale does that for me.